Getting my first pet!

February 5, 2018

2 weeks ago, as my boyfriend and I were grocery shopping I said, “Let’s get a fish” and he agreed! We had been talking about getting a pet for a while. I have never had a pet. My parents are not really fond of having to take care of animals, but that is a whole other story. As we were doing our grocery shopping, we stopped at the fish aisle and decided on what to get together. Luckily, right across from the Wal-Mart we were at, a PetCo was across the parking lot. We went to PetCo right after and talked to an employee…who turned out to be completely wrong! We followed some of her recommendations, which were to set up the tank and wait a few days before getting a fish. Then we sadly followed her advice in getting a goldfish as a starter which she said would probably die. A starter fish is meant to test the water and make sure that it is okay to live in.

After buying all of equipment: our 7 fish, 5 gallon fish tank, black light, water conditioner, healthy bacteria, fish food, decor for the tank, water pump, water heater, filters, cleaning scrub, and a box to hold everything. Everything including all of our fish was about $200. Although that is a lot of money, every item we bought will last us for at least 6 months! The first night when we went to go and get our first pet, but were advised to wait we decided to get GloFish! My boyfriend and I have talked about getting GloFish in the past and we decided right then and there it was going to happen.

After the 2 days, we got our 1 goldfish and we fed him and named him Bob. I was trying not to get attached, but was also excited that I was getting a pet. Growing up, I had always felt like I had missed out on having that experience especially when I would go to a friend’s house and get frightened every time I saw their dog! I just never had the experience leading me to believe that I was going to get attacked because the only dogs I grew up around were the ones around my neighborhood and they were NOT nice dogs. They would chase my brothers and I home and they would bite.

We had Bob for less than a day, in reality about a good night’s sleep. The next day when we woke up, I went to check to see how he was and to feed him. He was upside down floating towards the top of the tank. I flushed him down the toilet after my boyfriend advised me too. I had my first real pet experience. The sadness. I was so excited to take care of him and to have a bond. So, we called another PetCo in the city and they advised us totally different compared to the first employee we encountered. We were advised NOT to use a Goldfish as a starter when we were planning to get GloFish all along. The second employee seemed much more knowledgeable and horrified with what we were told. We weren’t even advised to acclimate the water from the fish’s bag to our own water so they could get used to the temperature. Tropical fish (Glofish) need to be in 72 degrees Fahrenheit to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. While Goldfish like it much colder and Goldfish and Glofish would NOT get along. So we had to start our tank from scratch again. We cleaned it and started over with a few drops of water conditioner and a few drops of healthy bacteria to create a safe environment for our next starter fish. After 2 days of that.

We went back to the same PetCo where we were much more informed where we bought our starter fish Barbs. My boyfriend actually went and got them while I was at work to surprise me! We named them Bob #2 and Bob jr. because we were also told these fish would also probably die as well. After having both Bobs for another 2 days we got our GloFish. We ended up getting small GloFish since we have our Barbs and we didn’t want to get rid of them. Everything turned out great. My boyfriend and I each got 2 GloFish. 2 red ones that glo pink and 2 yellow ones that glow super bright yellow! I named mine Flippy and Sleepy.

Our fish are 1 week and 3 days old to us. While Bob Jr. is 1 week and 5 days old. Unfortunately, the Bobs don’t eat much and neither do our yellow gold fish. Yesterday, Bob #2 passed away. I noticed he hasn’t been eating much for some reason. I’m hoping the rest eat. The rest of our fish seem to be doing fine.

I’m very excited to share my experience if you have any tips or recommendations please comment!